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| Another Political Milestone |
1/26/2014 |
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Today the largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) goes to the polls to choose regional executive officers of their political groupings.
As the stage preceding the choice of national officers, it is a significant milestone worth savouring by all cherishers of democracy, and a testimony to the desire of the groupings to stick to democratic principles where members, as major stakeholders, all have a say in the fate of the party: that after all is the essence of democracy.
The arrival of this mode of choosing executive officers at the various strata of the party is informed by the need to obviate the acrimony which characterized the process previously.
The expanded Electoral College, as it is known, attracted a fair degree of apprehension when it was mooted with prophets of doom writing it off as a non-starter. They pointed at the challenge of logistics and even the wherewithal to manage it and also taunted the originators of the novelty.
The maiden process came to pass and the resounding success which crowned it resonated across the political plane, attracting plaudits from observers outside the borders of the country. The NPP’s political rivals, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party have been encouraged by their founder to adopt the system, given the inherent advantages without doffing his hat for its originators though.
Without doubt, the NDC would adopt the Expanded Electoral College module when the time is due for them to choose executive officers for their party, even after taunting the concept when it was mooted.
Ghana’s democracy has come a long way even as we surmount varied obstacles in our application of this most loved module of government.
Whatever happens in the country’s political parties has a direct impact on democracy and governance. There is the need therefore, for all citizens to show interest in how these groupings are managed since after all, they are the vehicles from which future governments are chosen.
The political process, as being unfolded today across the country by members of the NPP, is not a picnic affair but a serious activity which has a direct bearing on the state of our nation and politics.
The existence of the electoral law is one of the measures to ensure that political groupings so formed, do not unleash upon the country bad elements who seek power to fulfil their myopic interests and not the nation’s.
The attention of the nation and others with interest in the progress of local democracy is definitely transfixed on what is happening today and its outcome at the various venues across the country.
It is our prayer that the process will be devoid of the pettiness which sometimes beclouds such lofty political projects. We wish all those participating in the process Godspeed.
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